IntroductionWell, the first year is done and now it is
time to get working on the second year! With so much going on in the industry and the
market getting bigger and bigger, you need a place where you can come and read about the
joys of collecting and playing games. That is where I come in! I offer you a place to tell
your stories, read about the games available in both cart form and on emulation. So
instead of grumping about how you were sniped on eBay or debating on how much to pay for
that very hard to find game you really want, you can come and read about the simple joys
of game playing. Think of us as a breath of fresh air in the market.

The PitchAfter saving up my money from my paper
route, I was able to purchase the highly coveted Super Action Controllers for the
Colecovision! These things were huge and just screamed out modern technology. Even better
is that they came packed with the Super Action Baseball game, the one that I drooled over
in magazines since it was first mentioned. No more one color characters like in
Intellivision Baseball, I was going to have different angles, bigger characters and tons
of fun!

After buying the joysticks, I invited my neighbor and friend, Mike
Hudak over to play. We spent alot of time over the next week, battling for the World
Series in fictional games. We took turns trying to get the Cleveland Indians to win the
World Series (a much more ridiculous notion back in the mid 80's). Then something happened
that completely changed the game forever. We discovered "The Pitch"!

In every game there are flaws and this game had an unhittable pitch.
I cannot remember who accidentally discovered it, but it was soon known by both of us and
the games became endless perfect games. No matter how we tried, we could not hit "The
Pitch" and soon the game became very boring. Something had to be done to save the
game as it was only a week old and Super Action Football was nowhere to be found.

After some debating, we finally agreed to ban "The Pitch"
for the sake of the game. Soon our World Series quest returned and so did the fun. Sure,
we occasionally snuck in "The Pitch" when we really needed it, but it was
quickly followed by a chorus of boos. So its appearances became a very rare occurrence.

As I look back on this episode and try to remember how to do
"The Pitch", I for the life of me cannot remember what it was. Sometimes it
seems more like a product of myth than actual occurrence, but I know that someday I will
be playing the game and it will return to me. Hopefully my competitive nature will not
consume and I won't abuse it.

MAME ReviewsWith another new version of MAME, I can
finally play a game I have been itching to play for a long time. Ever since I played it on
the Colecovision, I have craved the original arcade version. Will it live up to my hopes?
Read on to see!

Up n DownWhen I finally picked up the Colecovision version, I could not stop
playing it. I fell instantly in love with the game and one could say it was love at first
sight! Then I saw that it was emulated on MAME, I just had to have it. Beta version after
beta version came and I still could not get it to work. There would always be some flaw in
the game that made it unplayable. But I held out hope that it would be fixed by the next
version. Well, my patience finally paid off and I now have a playable version of the game.

After playing a few games, I realized a certain truth about
Colecovision games. That truth is that the games are always much easier on the
Colecovision than the original arcade version. Much like Tapper, I was in for a rude
awakening. After conquering the Coleco version and feeling like a hot shot, I was abruptly
dumped back into reality with my tail between my legs. My first few games went quickly! We
are talking sound byte fast! This is from a guy who breezed through five levels on the
Coleco before I broke a sweat. But here it is more like five seconds and I was a victim of
bad driving.

I had my work cut out for me if I was to regain my crown as the Up n
Down champ. Many, many games later and I was really starting to get the hang of it. Sure I
was lucky to get to the third level now, but it was satisfying accomplishment to do it.

The basis of the game is to drive your car up a road that curves and
bends. You have to collect flags as you drive along and need to get all of them before you
can move to the next level. The faster you can accomplish this, the more bonus points you
can earn. But it is much more than just racing around and picking up flags. You have to
dodge some slow moving cars that are always getting in your way. Unlike Bump n Jump or Spy
Hunter, you cannot ram these cars. If you do, it is one less life for you. Think of your
car as a Yugo, it cannot handle an accident without getting totaled. But you do have one
means of retaliation on your side. You can jump over or onto the cars and either dodge the
trouble or just squash the car and remove it that way.

Sound easy peasy right? Well, it would be if the road wasn't so
crooked. See if you jump and go off the road, your car will crash and you can kiss another
life goodbye. So you must be careful where and when you jump as it may lead you to safety
or your doom.

All in all, it is a great game and the challenge is great enough to
keep you coming back for more. While you may be able to conquer the game, it won't happen
overnight. Then that is the sign of a great game, one that keeps you challenged, but not
too hard as to chase you away.

JourneyI can still remember this game at the arcade. I laughed at it them and
I still laugh at it. It is probably one of the dumbest games made. At least now I can play
it for free and get all the way to the concert. I remember someone telling me about this
awesome concert if you got all the way through the game. I kept thinking it was a game
based on Journey, so how could there be an awesome concert? Maybe if I was a teenage girl.
Well, I didn't bother back then trying to see the concert, I mean there were much better
games to play.

For anyone who hasn't played this game, your mission is to have each
band member retrieve their musical instrument and head back to the ship. Once all five
band members have done this, you go off to a concert with a looping song and a bunch of
girls rushing the stage. Boy am I glad I didn't waste too much money trying to see this.

The characters in the game look silly. Each one has this huge
digitized head attached to a little video game body. Sorta like a video game version of
bobbing heads, only with rock stars. It is enough to evoke laughter in anyone who
remembers the group. This alone makes the game worthwhile.

The actual gameplay is repetitive as you have to get your players
through a series of obstacles, be it a platform or flying through a cave. Once you
retrieve the instrument, the game changes and a new challenge appears. Nothing is more
frustrating than getting all the way to the instrument, only to die on the way back. It is
enough to make you erase the game forever.

Overall, it is a dull game with less than thrilling gameplay. It is
a fun conversation piece and good for an occasional laugh. Beyond this, you are better off
putting on a Journey album (always available at thrift stores) and move around some GI
Joes or something.

Are Video Games the Next
Hot Collectible?There has been alot of talk about if and
when video game collecting will take off. I have heard arguments from both sides and after
weighing everything I heard and thinking about my experiences with other collectible
markets, I have come to this conclusion. WILL GAMES BE THE NEXT HOT COLLECTIBLE?
My answer is yes and no. Before you call me a coward for not giving a direct answer, here
is my reasoning. Yes, video games are going to be a hot collectible, but I am not sure if
they will be the next one. They should and alot of things are falling into place for them
to be, but if I ever learned anything about collectibles it is that they are
unpredictable. As soon as you think they will take off, another Beanie Baby type toy will
come along. But mark my words, video games will take off and they will become a hot
collectible. I am not saying this because I want to cash in on them. I am not saying this
because I hope they do. I am saying this because I believe against my better wishes, that
they will take off. There are way too many reasons for them not to. I will in this article
attempt to give and explain the reasons I feel this is inevitable. Then you can make your
own mind up on whether or not you think they will take off.

Memories Don't Come CheapIF there is one rule in collectibles, it
is the more memories it brings, the higher the price it can fetch. People want to go back
and recapture a piece of their youth. For kids growing up in the 1950's, it was a Mickey
Mantle baseball card or a decoder ring. For our generation, it is video games. Like the
kids in the past who collected baseball cards, we collected and played video games. We
grew up on them and watched them go from simple pong to the high tech 3-D games of today.
As more and more people reach a level of financial comfort, they will begin to look for
items that remind them of their youth. I know as I did it about 4 years ago. I searched
out some of the things I enjoyed in my youth and that is how I ended up in this business.
As I relived my memories, so will other people want to do the same. They will want to get
an Atari or Intellivision like they had when they were young. As more and more people
begin to do this, the supply of systems and games will begin to shrink and force the
prices up. An Atari system that sells for $25.00 today could conceivably fetch $100.00 or
more in a few years. Granted there seems to be alot of systems out there, but that is
because of the relatively small amount of people buying them at the moment. That can and
will change and it will become a sellers market. Which brings me into point #2.

The Lemming TheoryIf I have learned one thing from my time
selling comics and other collectibles, it is that it doesn't take much to get people
interested in something. For many of them, it is the mere thought of making money on
something to get them to become overnight game collectors. For others it only takes a
friend doing it to encourage them. Mark my words that when these price guides get out and
people realize there is a demand for these games, word will spread very quickly. Soon the
looks you get at garage sales and flea markets will change from a bewildered look to one
of distrust as you are the tenth person that day to ask if they have any old games. It
will not take much to set the market afire and it will happen. The one thing that will
drive the market is the relative scarcity of the games which leads into point #3.

Over Ten Years of ErosionOne thing that classic games has going for
it is that there has been over a decade of erosion. By this I mean that there is no new
copies of games and systems being added and the old ones are slowly disappearing. Every
year the amount of Atari systems and games out there is shrinking. Some are being thrown
out because they have no perceived value. Without the internet, where would you sell your
games? Odds are your local video game reseller has no interest in them. You can put them
up at a garage sale, but what if they don't sell there? Many people just throw them out.
Others are destroyed in fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and other disasters. Still
more break and either are non repairable or the owner doesn't know how or have the time to
fix them. So every year the supply of games shrinks. Sure there were a ton of games made
and there are still hundreds of thousands if not millions that are hidden in attics,
garages, warehouses and closets. As the word spreads that there is value to old games,
many of these will resurface and be added to the pool. But if this market takes off
anything like old toys have, then there simply will not be enough games to meet the demand
and they will go up. Alot of this demand will come from cross collecting which is point #4

The Completist TheoryOne thing that classic games has is cross
collecting capability. By this I mean that there are alot of other collectibles that can
overlap into classic games. A few obvious ones are the Star Wars, Star Trek and Disney
collectors. Soon these people will realize there are video games out there that feature
their collectible and they will want to own them. This will drive the price of these
specific items up and eventually some of these collectors will be drawn into the market of
video game collecting. Even some of the other lesser ones will bring in new blood. Some
properties like Sesame Street, the Muppets, Dungeons and Dragons and especially movie
buffs will find a nice selection of items to add to their collections. This brings me to
my final point.

People Want to Start at
the BeginningAs more and more people get into game
playing, and if you look at the Playstation sales you can see that the market is growing,
more and more will want to trace the industry back to its roots. Some people have a need
to see the evolution of an industry and will want to experience a real pong system,
playing Space Invaders on the Atari and the original Super Mario Bros on the Nintendo.
They will want to own and be able to really enjoy these milestones in video games. Some
will do it to get a proper perspective of the whole industry. Others will want to study
the old games to get ideas on making a great game without all the glitz and glamour of
today's games. Others will not know why they want to look back, it may be a curiosity
because it was something they only read about in a magazine or heard an older sibling
speak of. The same way that some kids are buying Star Wars figures even though they
weren't alive when the movies were originally released. Like Star Wars, some games are
classics and even if they are primitive by today's standards, they still hold the one true
component of a great game, great gameplay! The secret ingredient that cannot be captured
with full motion video or 3-D graphics or stereo sound. But instead with a certain magic
that will bring the player back for another game, whether it was made today or twenty
years ago.

So there are my reasons why I feel the market will take off. Don't
get me wrong, I would rather see it stay small. I really enjoy the small town feeling that
permeates it and really enjoy being able to trade with other collectors. Unlike many
collectibles, this is one where the majority of the people are more interested in their
collection instead of the value.

THE MANY FACES OF.......BEAMRIDER!Beamrider is a very interesting game
indeed. You are a ship on your way through an alien sector avoiding or destroying whatever
is in your way in order to get to the boss or what is known as "The Sector
Sentinel."

However, there are supposedly 99 different sectors! Each new sectors
adds new challenge and more nasties! And each new nasty has its own unique form of attack.
This game is very similar to Tempest. However, it definitely has an Activision
personality. This game can be found on four different classic systems: Atari 2600, Atari
5200, Colecovision, and Intellivision.

Disqualified: Atari 5200I am a huge fan of the Atari 5200. While
many people despise the system because of its controllers, I have found them to be
competent with almost all the games in its library (if they're functioning properly).
However, with Beamrider these controllers just plain suck. Trying to get from beam to beam
is a job that can only be done with a self-centering controller and perhaps only a digital
controller. The floppiness of these controllers kill what is otherwise a good-looking
game. Perhaps with a third-party joystick, such as Wico, this game would be better.

Bronze Medal:
IntellivisionThe Intellivision version of Beamrider
suffers the same fate as the 5200 version except to a lesser degree. The Intellivision
disc is fine with moving the ship, but after a full game of Intellivision Beamrider if
your thumbs had a mouth they would say, "Please, play a different version!" This
is a game that requires constant shooting and therefore constant pushing on the awkward
Intellivision fire buttons. Otherwise, this version is quite charming. Cool sounds and
graphics. Overall, this is definitely a step up from the 5200 version.

Silver Medal: Atari 2600I've been waiting to a do a review of this
game for a while now. What kept me from doing it was the 2600 Beamrider cartridge had been
eluding me, but I finally tracked one down recently. It was worth the wait, this version
is impressive. Although graphically inferior to the competition, it plays really well. The
game progresses the same in this version as in the rest and all the enemies are there, the
yellow lips, the blue cognizers, they're all there. This is yet another good game for the
2600 by Activision.

Gold Medal: ColecovisionThis version is superb. It plays good
enough to win the gold with the standard Colecovision controllers, but even better with
the Super Action Controllers...try it with them if you haven't already. The graphics and
sound are best and play is the smoothest. I love the challenge of the higher levels. I can
play this version for hours coming back trying to beat my high score or get to the next
sector. I think my best so far is Sector 19 or 20. Anyone done better?(Doug Saxon is an engineering student at the University of Cincinnati. He's mainly
into 2600, 5200, Colecovision, and Intellivision. He's also a proud owner of a mint Chase
the Chuckwagon cartridge which set him back $1. He can be reached via email at
saxondj@email.uc.edu. Doug is also looking to complete the Atari 5200 set and needs these
games. Bounty Bob, K-Razy Shootout, Quest for Quintana Roo, Star Wars:ROTJ-DSB, and Zenji.
If you have any for sale or trade give him an e-mail.")

When the Game Just Isn't
Enough?Freebies : The stuff that we, as consumers
(specifically video game consumers) get for purchasing an item in addition to that item.

Many stores use this gimmick to entice you into buying a game at
their store instead of someone else's store. For many people, price is the determining
factor when it comes to deciding on a purchase. But all other thing being equal, we all
want more.

Right now, I'm listening to a copy of the Metal Gear Solid
soundtrack as I write this. I got it for preordering the game from a local retailer. Some
other retailers are offering Metal Gear notebooks as a premium. I probably wouldn't have
pre-ordered the game if I didn't get this bonus. Within the last week, I've also gotten a
Parasite Eve Poster and a NFL Blitz lenticular card (which is pretty cool). All this got
me thinking…

What other premiums have been given away to us greedy game players
over the years ?

Now, I'm not talking about the things that were licensed products
based on games. Oh no, I'm thinking of only those items that could not have been gotten
(or rarely gotten) through means other than game purchases.

This item is the earliest premium I remember receiving for buying a
game. I'm sitting here, wracking my brain, trying to remember any premium prior to that.
Oh sure, there were the "Buy this machine and get a free copy of a game from this
list" offers. But I can't think of any buttons or T-shirts or (heh-heh) game
soundtracks from the classic era that were offered to me prior to M.A.S.H. I mean, I
didn't have to send away for it, I just took it home with me when I bought the game (And
quite a bad game it was. I deserved much more than this lousy shirt for buying a dog like
that.)

So I ask you, you who have survived the ravages of time eternal (at
least in the video gaming sense), what items have you pillaged since the dawn of time ?
What premiums did you receive in exchange for your patronage, your loyalty, your cash from
the local purveyors of silicon ? What little nuggets of gaming historia do you have lying
around in your coffers ?

I'd love to put together a modern and classic list of freebies for
publication in a future copy of this newsletter.

The music has ended. It's time to go.

(Fred Wagaman has been playing games for over 20 years and
actively collecting them for almost 10. The 2100 + games that he has takes up most of his
home office and living room. He lives in Denver, PA with his understanding wife Jennie and
his 2 year-old, button-loving son, Max. He can be mailed at fcw3@postoffice.ptd.net. Fred
remembers determining which cereal he would ask for based on the toy inside. Fred believes
that fast food restaurants have taken advantage of this tribal memory by their selection
of toys in their "Happy Meals".)

Ask the ProgrammerOnce again Andrew has been gracious enough
to answer another question and give us a little more insight into the making of a video
game and all the stuff we never know about.

Question-What was the
easiest and what was the hardest commercial games you had to program?Without a doubt, the easiest for me to
program was Pacman Jr, and Super Pacman on the C64. When I first taught myself how to
program games, it was in BASIC on the Atari 800 back in ooooh... 1980 or so. I did a
Pacman variant back then... sort of worked OK, but the pacmen moved

This was the point I really realized that I'd have to do it in
machine code, so I did a manual line-by line translation to machine code. Worked about 300
times faster; that was a real hoot. Anyway, I'd refined my skills at programming Pacman
type games by learning all about graphics, machine code, and pacman logic all at the same
time.

Segue to about 6 years later and as a professional programmer I'm
asked to do Super Pacman and Pacman Jr (official editions) for the C64. Pretty much a
breeze; but for one glitch. I didn't get along with the artists too well back then - my
opinion was that our art department - nice guys (even if they did smoke joints in the
ladies' loo all the time, and fill the game backgrounds with naked women) - didn't really
understand that 16 colours MEANT 16 colours. More often than not, we'd get really great
looking art which was completely unusable. So I bitched a lot. With the Pacman stuff, I
ended up doing all the art myself, which, if you know me well enough, isn't that
surprising ;)

Anyway, there weren't too many dramas on the Pacman front. I always
liked that game, though I must admit my versions had pretty much "seek and
destroy" logic, whereas I understand the real-thing has some sort of pattern-based
logic which could allow you to sit in certain places with immunity. I like the latter idea
better - but like all things back then, one had to reverse-engineer stuff, and despite my
pleas to the contrary, my boss wouldn't let me go on an extended company-funded research
expedition to the local arcades.

The game that really gave me problems was without a doubt Bad Street
Brawler on the NES. There are games that were "harder" to program, but this one
made me the most miserable. And we're talking pretty damn miserable, let me tell you.

At about the time the C64 was winding down, the NES came along. As
Nintendo wanted an absolute fortune to allow you to become a legit NES developer, and we
were uh.... cheap.... we reverse-engineered the machine. A brilliant hardware guy (hi
Adrian!) was the main guru on this thing, and as part of the reverse-engineering project,
he was using a testbed program to trial different ideas, etc. I was working on a C64 game
(yes, Bad Street Brawler) at the time, and Adrian was sort of copying the basic idea for
his testbed. Fine, no worries.

But come the completion of the C64 version I am handed Adrian's
testbed -"finish it"! Now, if you've ever programmed anything, you know what
it's like working with other peoples' code. Horrible. But this was horrible taken to
another extreme; a testbed program, a homebrew hardware manual full of "don't know
what this is for", and a programmer who's never programmed the machine before, with a
tight deadline!

The years have mellowed my opinion of this situation. At the time I
was rather critical of Adrian's programming, but to be fair it WAS a testbed, right? In
any case, a lot of the comments were about what this caused the machine to do, not what
the program was actually trying to do. And I guess I just plain didn't understand how
crappy the NES hardware really was. It was all sort of black-magic programming....
"STA V6 ; don't know what this does".

I did manage to complete a basic version of the program, but the
whole idea was pretty dumb - a side scrolling beat-em-up clone of a C64 game. The C64 had
massive sprites, and the NES ones were teeny-weeny. After about 9 months development, the
whole thing was shelved for a better idea. I think I resigned once or twice during that
game - the only pay rises I ever got with that company were when I resigned, which was
about 5 times, in all. I was pretty unhappy during Bad Street Brawler.

But not as unhappy as I was when, about a year or so later, my boss
told me that they'd sold the game to Mattel, it was going to be released after all, and
I'd be reworking it to Mattel's satisfaction - dig up the source code. The idea was that
this would be the first Powerglove game, and that we'd change it all so that the moves
would be powerglove driven. I resigned. Anyway, big pay rise later, and probably about 6
months (my memory is dim - I think this happens with extreme trauma) later... it was done.
And now, I don't ever want to talk about this program again.

(Bio: Andrew Davie. Programmer for numerous games on many
different platforms including Atari 400/800, C64, NES and SNES. Been making games in the
industry from 1984 - present. Currently working on real-time 3D interactive movies.
Contact email:adavie@mad.scientist.com)

A Deeper Look At.....

Here is another helping of three more games to take a deeper look
at. So enjoy my observations and feel free to agree or disagree with me.

A Deeper Look At....Roc n
RopeThis was one of those odd little games I
used to enjoy playing on the Colecovision. I really don't know what the attraction is to
this game, but I do enjoy playing it. Maybe I have a secret crush on the Bird of Paradise
or I just want to see what comes next. I don't know, but I keep coming back to it.

As I eluded to, the game features the one and only appearance of the
Bird of Paradise. Think of it as a prettier peacock. This bird flies to the top of a
mountain and it is your job to get her. Sounds simple enough. Well, we all know that
nothing comes easy in classic video games. This isn't a typical walk up the mountain to
free the darling bird, no you have to go back and forth from one ledge to another. If you
were a kangaroo, leaping would probably be the choice form of movement, but you are a
lowly human and so you need a rope. Hence the name, Roc n Rope. You must take your rope
and shoot it into some rock and then climb across. They were pretty clever when it came to
naming this game. So you can easily just climb up that mountain and capture the bird.

Well, not quite. What good would a game be without obstacles?
Thankfully, this game has a few opponents to keep you busy. They come in the form of
dinosaurs and cavemen. Yes, what else would you expect to protect a bird of paradise?
These guys of course are deadly to the touch and they will kill you if possible. But wait!
You have a trusty weapon to fight them! What is that you say, a gun? No, you don't get any
gun. Sorry, but no knife either. You are armed with a.......flashlight! Yesiree, you go to
battle with your trusty flashlight. Doesn't exactly evoke fear in a person, does it?
Luckily these beasties are scared of light and are easily stunned by it. Look at the
bright side, at least they cannot accuse this game of being too violent.

So with your rope and trusty flashlight you must ascend the
mountain. Along the way you can find eggs and feathers left behind by this very sloppy
bird. While you don't need to collect these (at least I don't think you do, I always grab
them because I want a higher score), they do add to the point total. Once you get to the
top of the mountain and grab that dirty bird, the game does not end. Nope, it is off to a
even more challenging mountain to save the stupid bird once again. A clip of the wings
could really ease your life.

All in all, it isn't a great game. Sure the logic behind the weapon
choice is enough to have you scratching your head, but I find it a fun game. It is a bit
rare, so it isn't your cheapest game, but you can find a Coleco version for around $10-15.

A Deeper Look
at.....SpidermanI always referred to this game as the poor
man's Crazy Climber. Both involve climbing up a building. Of course that is about as much
as they have in common. But when one costs about $5.00 and the other goes for over
$100.00, it is enough to satisfy you for awhile.

Spiderman in his own fashion, does not climb a building in the same
way as most people would. Instead he swings up a building with his patented web shooters.
This is actually pretty ingenious and I must commend Parker Bros for this. You shoot your
webbing and then pull yourself up the building. You can also shoot it at an angle and then
swing over to another part of the building. This alone is quite fun and worth the price of
admission. Shoot the web and then pull yourself in, sorta like fishing for yourself.

While the web swinging is fun, there is an actual point to this
game. Your arch nemesis, the Green Goblin has planted bombs on the building and it is your
job to stop it from leveling the building. I personally don't see why the Green Goblin
would plant bombs in a building full of his henchmen and why Spiderman would try to stop
it, but I guess he must save lives, even the evil ones. As you progress up the building,
these little guys pop out the window and try to cut your rope. When they succeed, you are
headed to the ground to be pavement graphitti. Of course, you can shoot your web again and
save yourself.

The one problem with the game is you cannot actually fight the Green
Goblin. Sure he is there and can kill you, but you must just get past him and cannot even
lay a glove on him. You can stop his henchmen by touching them and also can stop the bombs
that are planted around the building. While the gameplay is limited, it is still a fun
game and the graphics are actually quite good. You can tell it is the Green Goblin. I do
recommend this game and it is a worthy addition to any collection.

A Deeper Look at....Bump
n JumpThis has quickly become one of my favorite
Nintendo games. Of all the versions I have played of this game, this is by far my
favorite. I even like it more than the MAME version and that is saying alot.

Like Roc n Rope, this is a game whose title is appropriate. You need
to drive along this road in a race of sorts and either bump the other cars off the road or
jump on top of them. Simple enough to understand.

Of course, the other cars aren't the only obstacles. Here you have
one of the worst racing tracks ever devised. I can guarantee it isn't a sanctioned track.
Unlike most tracks where a hairpin turn is your worst enemy, this one features jumps over
large bodies of water. One wrong move and you are racing the fishes. If this isn't enough
there are buildings to leap over. Talk about some real bad planning.

One nice feature is the different levels, so you aren't always
riding the same course. Nothing like a change of scenery to get the blood pumping. I
especially like the third set.

I like the Nintendo version best because it handles great. You can
weave in and out of those cars with great precision and jump those obstacles with no
problems. The learning curve is also set just right. It doesn't get too hard too fast like
the quarter chomping arcade version. This keeps you from getting discouraged too quickly.
The graphics are also as good or very close to the arcade version. Overall, it is a great
version and one worthy of adding to a collection. Be warned that it is a hard version to
find. Of the thousands of Nintendo games I have come across, this is the only version I
have ever seen.

Help Me Identify TheseA few years back, I stopped at a garage
sale and found a bag full of some odd carts. I bought them due to the fact that they were
unique and they were quite cheap. The lady did not have the machine that ran the games and
did not know the name of it. So I was in the dark of my discovery.

Over the last few years, I searched to find a picture of them on the
net, but to no avail. I asked around and was given all kinds of answers; Emerson Arcadia
from Canada, Imagination Machine, some strange European release. But noone ever had an
exact answer. The carts themselves, while all boxed, are vague to the system. They are
very generic in design with no dates or manufacturers. All they say is "For Use With
Home Entertainment Centre MPT-03". The carts are all labeled MG301 to MG313. I do
have all thirteen of the series and do not know if there is any others. I have supplied
photos of one of the game boxes and another of the cart, rule book and overlays. The carts
are shaped like a Super Nintendo game, where they are wider than they are long. Here is a
list of the games that I have. As you can see by some of the names, they share the same
names of some Emerson Arcadia games, which makes me believe they may be a imported
version. But the cart shape and size is totally different than an Emerson Arcadia, which
confuses me.

I did one time see a cart for sale on eBay about two years ago. I
contacted the person, but they were not sure of what it was. While I cannot remember how
much it went for, I do remember it going for quite a bit.

Hallowed GroundsOne thing my wife and myself have in
common is the love of video games. While she doesn't collect them, she does love to play
them. Problem is she is good at them, real good. It took her no time at all to surpass my
best scores at Q*Bert 3 and Mr. Do on the Super Nintendo. Now she has blown my best scores
out of the water and they aren't even close. These are two games I excelled at in my
youth. While it is great to have the rivalry, she has left the Super Nintendo behind and
has set her sights on MAME.

While many men would give their right arm to have a understanding
wife when it comes to video games, it can be a bit devastating to see your high scores
fall. I have nicknamed her Matilda the Hun as she doesn't stop until she rules the high
score charts.

At first it was the sequels of Mr. Do. She now dominates Mr. Do's
Castle and it only took her an hour to eliminate my scores on Mr. Do Run Run and Mr. Do's
Wild Ride. But now she is headed for hallowed ground! I could overlook the Mr. Do games as
they were ones I wasn't all that good at anyway, but now she wants the Zookeeper high
score! This means war! Right now she is struggling and after the first day assault, my
high scores remain intact. Her highest score to date is 72,000, while my highest is
133,000. I know it is only a matter of time before they fall like so many others, unless I
take drastic action. I must increase my game playing to keep her at bay. I must put up
scores to save the long standing records.

The biggest fear is once she conquers this, she will head for the
most sacred of grounds, my Robotron and Crazy Climber high scores. Stay tuned for more
reports on the battle to keep my name from being completely erased from the MAME charts.

Question of the MonthLike last month, I will ask a more direct
question. I received the most responses last month of any question. I was also asked if I
could compile the responses and give some results. So here are the results of last month's
question.

The question was "Has emulators increased, decreased or not
affected the time you spend playing consoles"? I received 96 different responses and
here is the breakdown.

91 said it has decreased
5 said it increased

Guess that was pretty overwhelming! So with that in mind, here is
this month's question:

If you were able to collect all the games for a given
system, would you then stop collecting for it and enjoy the collection, sell the
collection off, or begin trying to collect different variations of the games (i.e.:label
variations, overseas versions, etc...)?

Personally, if I ever complete the Intellivision collection, I will
keep it and just enjoy it. It has been fun trying to compile all the games and I really
enjoy playing them. I couldn't imagine not owning Diner, Thin Ice and Tower of Doom.

eBay NotesThe latest trend in eBay is the
overwhelming amount of Lynx carts that are popping up. We are not talking a handful as is
usually the case, we are talking hundreds of them! Of course this is also sending the
prices down for the games. Where a Lynx cart used to fetch near $10.00 and sometimes more
in the past, they are now selling for closer to $5.00. What caused all this? Word is that
a person bought out a huge stash of Lynx games, much like the O'Sheas lot and are selling
them for approximately $3.00 each on the west coast. From what I heard he has literally
thousands of them, somewhere like 3000 or more of each title. Whether this is true or not,
I cannot say. But with the major influx of titles on eBay, I would guess it isn't far from
the truth.

Another trend I have been noticing is that while Atari 7800 games
remain cheap, mainly due to O'Sheas, the price of Atari 7800 units is moving up. While you
used to be able to get a system and a stack of carts (between 5-7) for $20-$25, that price
has almost doubled in the last year. I now see very similar packages going for $40-$50. My
guess is that since so many people have taken advantage of the O'Sheas deal for 7800
games, there is a big demand for systems to play these games on. At the present rate, it
is not inconceivable to see a 7800 system sell by itself for $50.00 or more. You will also
see the price of joysticks moving up fast as they aren't the most reliable. You can add
power supplies to that group as they are not compatible with any others. So if you don't
have a power supply, you cannot go to Radio Shack and get a new one, like you can for the
2600. As some begin to wear out, you will see the value of these move up, much like
Vectrex controllers are always in demand.

What's Happening in the
Newsgroups?There was nothing to really report on in
the newsgroups. Hopefully next month there will be more to report on.

Classic Video Game
Commercial TapeOne of the items I received over the past
month is a video tape full of classic commercials about Video Games. Sean Kelly has
compiled a huge collection of these gems and it was a walk down memory lane to watch
these. While the quality of some of these were fairly bad, overall it was pretty decent.

You get to see such memorable ones as the George Plimpton
Intellivision commercials, the "Have you Played Atari Today" catchphrase, the
Wizard of Odyssey and more! These will make you laugh, I guarantee it. Some are so corny
and others are truly a product of their times. The Megamania one screams out
"MTV". Others are sappy like the "ET" one. There are over a half hour
of gems including some stuff you would never find anywhere else. This includes info on the
next Odyssey system, the Atari 2600 computer system and the unreleased (and you will see
why) Atari Jaguar commercials.

The price is $15.00 plus $3.00 for shipping and it
is well worth it! This would be a great party tape and would be a hit. I am sure a few
beers would really improve them. I do recommend buying this tape and since supplies are
limited, you better hurry! Once they are gone, they are gone forever. To order go to:
http://www.xnet.com/~skelly/

Return to Pacland-Chapter
3AS I watched them patrol their home, I
knew I had to pull out some of my tricks to get past them. So I headed back towards the
bottom of the screen. It took awhile to get down there, as one does not realize the
distance until it is traveled. Once down there, I opened my backpack and pulled out and
pulled out an image projector. I placed it down and turned it on. There against the back
wall was projected an image of Pacman. I fumbled quickly to resize it and then turned on a
tape player of game sounds of Pacman eating dots. I then quickly ran off as the
"wacka wacka" sounds could be heard echoing through the maze. I ran for the side
and moved my way up towards the house.

As I predicted, the ghosts headed over to attack their enemy. Once
they moved off, I headed for the house and jumped in. While I had no idea what to expect,
I could never in a million years fathom the sights that laid before me. First off, the
house may look small, but it is HUGE! I mean it was cavernous! But that was only a small
part of the shock. Inside the home was an enormous pile of bones. As I went over and
pulled one of the skeletons out, I noticed it was a skull attached to a very long spine.
It was curved in shape and after a quick view, I realized it belonged to a Pacman. How
many of these Pacman have died in the years? I couldn't begin to count the skeletons, but
I noticed there were different shaped ones. Some were very small and some were quite
large. There was even some beanies and bows laying around. I couldn't control myself and
felt a dizziness overcoming me.

As I continued to look around, I saw tunnels that led off to
somewhere else. The whole area was very dark, only illuminated by some glowing rocks that
seemed to line the room. I quickly typed in "Get me the hell out of here!" on
the computer. As I waited for the message, I saw the ghosts begin to pour into the room. I
knew there were only a few seconds for him to beam me out before I would join the pacmen
who have gone before me. As they neared me, I felt a terror going up my spine. The hair on
the back of my neck stood on end as I saw the great creatures bearing down on me.
Suddenly, I was transported away, with a second to spare! As I landed back in our world, I
fell to my knees and thanked the man upstairs to be out of there. That is one place I did
not want to return to.

As I regained my composure, we opened the backpack to take out the
dots and analyze them. But as I dug through the backpack, I found they were mysteriously
absent. I know I put them in there and at no time could I think of an opportunity where I
could have lost them. My only guess is that they do not exist outside of their world and
so when I left it, they ceased to exist. My only hope is that the same holds true with the
ghosts. If they could exist here and found a way to enter our world, who knows what havoc
they could wreak.

The End

FinaleOnce again the newsletter comes to a close.
While it isn't as large as the past issue, it still is quite large. I hope you enjoyed it
and hope to hear your comments, good or bad. As always, we are looking for contributors
and welcome your articles. Tune in next month when I will give you a taste of what is to
come in the video game market. With the market for classic games growing, we will see some
changes in the market. Some will be good and some won't. I will give you a quick preview
of what to expect and what to watch out for. Our little world is going to change and we
must prepare for it.